Doctor Who news: The Third Doctor faces the Daleks once more in May!

Details have been revealed for the next volume of Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures, where the Doctor will meet Churchill and face the Daleks once more!

Doctor Who: The Third Doctor Adventures has been a truly successful series for Big Finish. While recasting a role as iconic as the Third Doctor was a risky move, Tim Treloar has done an excellent job at capturing Jon Pertwee’s voice and mannerisms. More than that – his chemistry with Katy Manning (who played companion Jo Grant) is fantastic to hear.

But while the combination of Treloar and Manning was an extremely effective one for the first four volumes, last year, it got even better in the fifth. Because not only did John Levene reprise his much-loved role of Sergeant Benton.

But Big Finish also hired Jon Culshaw to voice the Brigadier. Nicholas Courtney’s iconic character was an integral part of the UNIT family, and it was fantastic to hear Culshaw do justice to the character.

So naturally, we’re always excited when details are revealed for the next volume. Especially when May’s box set will feature not just the Daleks, but also Ian McNeice as Winston Churchill!

The Third Doctor returns for two more brand new adventures in May!

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Poison of the Daleks by Guy Adams

"UNIT has been seconded to handle security at Breathe Industries’ revolutionary new air filtration plant. The Doctor is initially dismissive… but when a man seems to appear out of thin air and die, his curiosity is piqued.The Doctor soon discovers that the plant is connected to another time, another place. Stranded with Jo, the Brigadier and Benton on a distant planet, the Doctor discovers the terrible truth behind Breathe Industries’ new technology. His oldest enemies, the Daleks.Can even the Doctor and UNIT manage to save two worlds at the same time?"

While not quite as major an enemy to the Third Doctor as the Master, the Daleks are pretty close. In fact, the Daleks had major appearances in four stories during Jon Pertwee’s era. That doesn’t initially sound like much, but that’s more than most other Classic and even New Series Doctors.

So it makes a lot of sense for Big Finish to give us more stories of the Third Doctor encountering the pepper pots. This isn’t the first Dalek story we’ve had in The Third Doctor Adventures, either – they previously appeared in Nicholas Briggs’s The Conquest of Far from the third volume of the series.

For Guy Adams’s brand new Dalek story, it sounds like we’re getting something a little different. The Conquest of Far was designed to emulate stories such as Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks – stories that focused on the Daleks trying to conquer the galaxy in the future.

But this time, it sounds like we’re getting something closer to Day of the Daleks with Poison: a mix of both present-day and far off settings, with your classic UNIT invasion story thrown in. Personally speaking, I have a soft spot for Day of the Daleks – it was one of the earliest Doctor Who stories I remember getting on VHS – so I’m rather looking forward to this.

More from Winter is Coming

• For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
• Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
• Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
• Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
• Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”

Operation Hellfire by Jonathan Barnes

"When the Doctor accepts an invitation to an audience with a popular horror writer, he’s expecting a rather dull evening. But he quickly senses the presence of another Gallifreyan nearby. The Time Lords have a mission for him.Soon the Doctor and Jo and themselves at the height of the Second World War in 1943. Caught up in a struggle involving occultist Nazis, the Prime Minister, top-secret agencies and a mysteriously powerful amulet, they must distinguish friend from foe and avoid sacrifice upon the altar of evil."

Now, this definitely sounds like an appealing listen. Along with revealing another early encounter for the Doctor and Churchill, the mix of occultist Nazis and powerful objects in World War II sounds gloriously pulpy. Honestly, it sounds very reminiscent of Indiana Jones, which is no bad thing.

Along with writing for Doctor Who on audio, Jonathan Barnes has also written a great deal for Big Finish’s range of Sherlock Holmes stories. This is a range that I strongly recommend, both for Holmes fans and for those who enjoy solid adventure stories. If Operation Hellfire is half as good as those, we should be in for a real treat.

In fact, that sounds true of The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Six overall. We’ve been given many enjoyable adventures from the range over the past five years, and I’m sure this box set will offer two more. You can pre-order it now on CD or download directly from Big Finish’s website.

Are you a fan of The Third Doctor Adventures? Are you excited he’ll be meeting the Daleks again? Or are you more intrigued about his early encounter with Churchill? Let us know in the comments below.